{Review} The Sleeping King by Cindy Dees

The Sleeping King is the start of a new fantasy series by New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, Cindy Dees.

Dees
has won a Golden Heart Award, two RITAs for Category Suspense and
Adventure and has also twice snared RT's Series Romantic Suspense of the
Year. She is a great storyteller, and the adventures in her more than
fifty novels are often inspired by her own life. Dees is an Air Force
vet-the youngest female pilot in Air Force history-and fought in the
first Gulf War. She's had amazing adventures, and she's used her
experiences to tell some kickass stories.

But as much as she
loves romances, Cindy's other passion has been fantasy gaming. For
almost twenty years she's been involved with Dragon Crest, one of the
original live action role-playing games. She's the story content creator
on the game, and wanted to do an epic fantasy based on it, with the
blessing and input of Dragon Crest founder Bill Flippin.

The Sleeping King
is the first in an epic fantasy series, featuring the best of the
genre: near immortal imperial overlords, a prophecy of a sleeping elven
king who's said to be the savior of the races . . . and two young people
who are set on a path to save the day.

The Review:The Sleeping King is the first book in a new epic fantasy series
by Cindy Dees and epic it turned out to be!

The synopsis seems to tell the reader more about the author
than the actual book so I’ll try and tempt you a little….

In this adventure fantasy story we have a world – Urth –
that has varying lands and inhabitants. Magic is aplenty but so is the tyranny.
We start the book with events that happened years ago, a controlling emperor
who can bend anyones thoughts and will to his own, his power hungry overlords
who rule regions of Urth in any manner they choose as long as they line the
Emperor’s pockets and some good people who a forced to make sacrifices for the
greater good…… but there is also a prophecy…. One that portends the downfall of
the Emperor and his regime! The emperor will do everything in his power to stop
this from happening but can you change fate?

Fast forward a few years and we meet Will, a young lad on
the brink of adulthood wanting to prove to his parents that he should be
allowed to train & fight for his little village. Little does he know that
his village will need fighting for very soon and everything he thought he knew –
is not all there is to know. He is sent on an errand to a nearby city to report
to one person alone and to warn them that the enemy is moving and they need to
prepare – but will he be taken seriously when the Governor of the city is
corrupt as they come?

Elsewhere Raina is on the verge of becoming a woman, 16 and
on the cusp of life – that is until she has a family tradition thrust upon her
that will change everything and leave her all but caged. Headstrong Raina will
refuse her family tradition, she will not accept what is laid out for her and
she will flee her home in a desperate escape from a life that she doesn’t want.
With help from a mysterious Elf she will search for a way to relieve her family
from its duty so that no other daughter will be forced to accept a fate like
that which is waiting for her.

Both Will and Raina believe the answer to their problems is
in the prophecy of the ‘Sleeping King’ who will conquer all and bring the world
back into balance. They head out with some friends in the hopes they will find
the Kings resting place so they can awaken him…..but many enemies await and
they journey will be full of danger – will they set a prophecy in motion? Will they
wake the Sleeping King?

So, it sounds good right? Well it was! It was epic! I love
books like this that can take you far away from your life and deposit you into
a whole other world filled with all kinds of wonderful things. The author did a
great job of bringing this world to life, as you may have read – it is based
upon an online game ‘Dragon Crest’ and how fab that she has made it into a
book! I loved nearly everything about this although I didn’t really get into it
until the 20% mark when things started to get moving. I really enjoyed getting
to know all of the characters, they were all written as such that their
character is true to their person for instance Will is extremely brave and
moral and that really comes across well, which helps connect with them. Raina
is another example in that you can tell she is headstrong, sassy and not afraid
to fight for what she wants. The bad guys felt like bad guys, as a reader I wanted
them caught and punished, I wanted bad stuff to happen to them for what they
put everyone else through so that indicates to me how good the author portrayed
the characters of the book because I was invested in every one of them.

The storyline was great, lots of different lands and scenery
to be discovered with all of its creatures too. It was quite easy to understand
the dynamics of Urth and I didn’t feel like I got overloaded with information. To
be fair, the characters really made this book for me but I really appreciated
the rest too, I mean when you have portals that drop you in a dryad grove – it’s
always going to impress. I loved the prophecy angle, it gave the book a very
adventurous feel where the main characters go on a quest and encounter all
manner of things. I suppose it could be compared to a Lord of the Rings –esque scenario
on a lesser scale but the same sort of enjoyment to be had. For all the story
had a really slow start, once the character were in place and things started
moving, the pacing was good and I was kept interested all of the way through. There
are side threads to this story also which will probably develop over the series
so it isn’t all focused on the prophecy and I do look forward to those being
revealed. As fantasies go though, this was brilliant! It had everything you
could want in a fantasy – prophecy, strange worlds, diverse set of characters
& species, evil enemies with one that you just know will be the end series
bad guy, plenty of magic, secrets, discoveries, battles, puzzles……even a
smidgen of romance - it’s all there and
it’s all very enthralling. I simply can’t wait for book two!

4.5 stars!

Thank you to Tor Books for giving me the opportunity to review this book in exchange for an honest review.